Comments on: Your Tax Dollars At Work – More Pork, Less Bridges.

By: David

David — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:58:23 +0000

Carol – Yes, I do all of these things. I am incredibly active in politics and environmental issues and give a ton of money towards these issues.

Thank you for yelling at me, though…

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:11:10 +0000

Mark Twain was right when he said “If you put a frog in boiling water he will try to jump out, but if you put him in cooler water and gradually turn up the heat he will not notice” (well, something like that)– don’t you think we are the frogs? What have YOU done to stop this maddness –did you write an actual letter to your state reps, or congressmen or the president to tell them that you are sick and tired of this foolishness, are you registered to vote, did you AT THE VERY LEAST VOTE? Old hippies (like me) had it right — If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Step up, spend the postage and demand that your concerns be addressed my the person in charge, not an aide, or an intern, and follow up when you hear from them. The revolution WILL be televised — see you there.

By: Smart. Healthy. Rich.

Smart. Healthy. Rich. — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:10:11 +0000

@Brip Blap – I agree with you completely about no-bid contracts in a war zone. Have you seen the documentary “Why We Fight”? It’s an excellent film, and looks at some of the financial advantages of going to war.

By: David

David — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:14:32 +0000

Science is OK with me, but searching for aliens is not, at least not with public money. Private money, sure…

As for the stupid wars we get ourselves into, that’s an entirely different subject and could probably be a subject for a whole blog.

I guess the point is that while some people might think SETI is a good idea, I just cannot even fathom it with all the other money we waste on stupid crap. Take out some of the crap and I might be up for searching for aliens.

By: Brip Blap

Brip Blap — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:47:54 +0000

Yeah, I’m OK with SETI, too. Sometimes the government should fund open-ended scientific research with no corporate/consumer/profit angle, just because it should. I imagine the year’s funding for SETI probably equals .000000001% of the war. You want to talk about pork, talk about no-bid contracts in a war zone.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:22:36 +0000

It’s definitely frustrating. One of the trade magazines in my office had a feature article on the crumbling highway system in America. It’s frustrating to read that piece and see this post.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:25:31 +0000

I’m fine with volcano monitoring. It sounds like a pretty valuable use of money to me.

I’m also okay with funding that money for SETI. I think it’s a worthwhile cause.

I’d like to read more about the bridge proposal in Minn. Sometimes there’s an unrelated bill attached to it that makes it not feasible to do either.

By: KMC

KMC — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:10:15 +0000

Congress actually passed a law requiring the public posting (via the internet) of all these earmarks…

only they waived the requirement this year.

Wonder why?

By: david

david — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:04:47 +0000

Chris – of course there are worse things in there, but I think looking for UFO’s and aliens rank right up there with the government paying for baseball stadiums, bridges to nowhere, and assorted other things that should not come out of my tax dollars.

$1,000,000 is not paltry – not by any means.

By: chrisL

chrisL — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:01:09 +0000

You criticize the paltry sum of $1,000,000 for SETI – There are far better examples of pork in the budget than this (refer to your $9billion on marijuana laws post)- the SETI project has many valuable scientific achievements to its credit and the cost/payoff potential here is not even quantifiable in a dollar figure.